The First Day in Review

From all accounts, it sounds like Kelton's first day went well. This afternoon Kaylen and I walked to the bus stop to anxiously await his return. Finally...finally...the bus pulls up and my boy scrambles off and into my waiting arms. I couldn't hold back the tears - I was so happy to see him!

He looked and me and said "You missed me, didn't you?" I nodded my head in agreement but words failed me. Oh yes, my child. I absolutely missed you. He hugged me hard and we started home.

As we walked, he suddenly asked if he could go to Josh's house to play because everyone at school wanted to talk with him and he didn't have time to play with Josh. (or was it that Kelton had to talk with everyone else? That's probably more what it was. He's such a social guy!) Ummm....no! No you may not leave - are you freaking kidding me? I've missed you like crazy all day and the first thing you ask to do is leave? NO way buddy - you're MINE! MINE MINE MINE!!!!! I am not sharing you anymore today so there!

But what I said out loud was that he would see Josh again in the morning but this was family time and I wanted to spend time with him and hear all about his day. So grown up of me, don't you think? :)

To my surprise, he wasn't as exhausted as I had anticipated. For a full hour he was happy and chatty and I soaked it all in. I started asking questions and he said he would tell me - but only me. "Not Kaylen." So we set Kaylen up with NickJr online and Kelton asked me to come into his room for some "alone time" (she was happy to be left to her own devices and didn't seem to care that we disappeared). It was quite the honor to be invited into his room for alone time. Usually - he just wants to be alone in there.

We snuggled on his bed and he talked all about his day. He likes his teacher, he saw his kindergarten teacher and talked with her a little, he knows which rooms all his kindergarten friends were assigned to, he has already made a new friend in his room, he ate his lunch in the lunchroom and guess what? Instead of the three recesses I said he would have they only have two. And guess what else? They get to have computer lab!! He ate most of his lunch but wanted to know if he could buy a hot lunch someday....

Oh my goodness - he just talked and talked. Then he asked if I missed him a lot (I said I did) and said he missed me too.

He didn't have to tell me with words - just telling me about his day told me all I needed to know about how much he missed me. Normally, when asked about his day (or well...anything) he's response is "I don't remember." and that's it. For him to go on and on and on and then ask me to play with him for a while well- it told me all I needed to know. My boy missed me but he had had a good day.

And he wants to go back. Which is awesome. He was never that keen on kindergarten so I held my breath not knowing what today would bring but I think it's all good (of course I thought that after the first day of kindergarten too so time will tell). He isn't crazy about the bus ride home (he is next to the last stop) but I explained that if I drove to pick him up, he'd probably not be home any earlier than the bus could get him here since we'd have so many cars and buses to maneuver through. He will stick with the bus a few more days and we'll re-evaluate. Honestly, from the time school is out until the bus arrives here, it's only 20 minutes. I think he'll adjust.

By 5:15pm he was a tired lump of a boy on the couch. He hardly ate dinner, refused ice cream and just seemed "done". It had been a very big day for my guy. He was fast asleep by 7pm. Those three precious hours with him home tonight sure went fast. Too fast. *sigh*

So - all in all, a good day for Kelton. I had a rough day emotionally and the tears would spring up every now and then but I made it through. At one point Kaylen said "It's so quiet without Kelton here." Too quiet indeed.

It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds for the three of us. It's a new world and it's going to take some time to adjust. Probably more time for me than for anyone. But what else is new in that, eh?